Thermodynamics and

Information

Alex Thompson
Phys 495, UW, Autumn 2015

Overview
-History (Maxwell, Szilard, Shannon,
Landauer)
-Theory ( built into the above )
Experimental tests
Information ratchets
Landauers principle

Key sources:
Toyabe, et. al (2010)
Berut, et al. (2012)

Maxwells Demon
Gedanken experiment:
Trapdoor between two sides of a partitioned box filled
with a gas
Perfect knowledge of kinematics allows separation of
fast from slow particles
Information drives system out of equilibrium
Temperature difference can drive a heat engine.

Image: http://cdn.phys.org/newman/gfx/news/hires/2009/maxwellsdemon.jpg

Shannon Entropy

Shannons information-theoretic entropy (1948):

H(x) E[I (x)] P(xi )log b P(xi )

i

From thermodynamics (Gibbs Entropy):

S kB P(xi )log b P(xi )

i

S kBH(x)

Thermodynamic and informational entropysame form!

Szilard Engine

1929:

1.
2.
3.
4.

Divide boxs volume

Measure location of particle; hook up cable to particles side
Allow isothermal expansion of single-particle gas
W = kT ln(2) extracted from a single temperature reservoir!
Is the second law broken???

Image: http://www.theo2.physik.uni-stuttgart.de/forschung/stochasticthermodynamics/

1961: Rolf Landauer:

Information states map to physical states.
Erasing a group of bits reduces number of logical, thus
physical states.
Decrease in memory microstates entropy of memory
decreases
Entropy of universe increases heat must be generated!
Qres TS
sys
Minimum
heat
produced by erasing one bit of classical
information:
H sys,i ln(2)

H sys, f 0
H sys ln(2)
Ssys kBH sys kB ln(2)
Qres kBT ln(2)

ttp://www.nature.com.offcampus.lib.washington.edu/nature/journal/v483/n7388/fig_tab/nature10872_F1.h

Landauers Principle & Erasure

Landauers Principle &

Erasure

1982, Charles Bennett: Full cycle of Szilards engine

requires erasure.
Erasure releases Q = kT ln(2), offsets info storages
reduction in entropy
Note: measurement is logically and thermodynamically
reversible

Reformulation of the second

law
Sagawa and Ueda, 2008:

Wmax (E TS) kBTI

Where I is the mutual information,

I (X;Y) H(X) H(X | Y)

between measured system feedback
controller.

Information Engine
Experiment of Toyabe ,et al.
2010
Colloidal particle in an optical
trap
With CCD camera, observe
fluctuations
When particles potential
increases, change phase of E
field = insert optical barrier
Information Ratchet
Derive useful work from
feedback on constant
temperature system!

Image:

Information Engine
a) Experimental
setup
b) trapping
potential(s)
c) feedback control

for secon
back: 1. Measure particle. 2. If near a peak in current potential, wait
3. Rotate potential 180 degrees. If is short, particles potential increase

Testing Landauers Principle

Brut, et al. 2012:
Particle trapped in double well
Reduce potential barrier, raise same side each time
Deform potential back to original shape

Particle ends in same well with probability near 1

In the limit of long erasure time, results converge
toward, but do not drop below Landauers limit!

Extensions
Landauers principle applies to any
logically irreversible process
(Mapping multiple input states to a
single output)
AND, OR, NAND, XOR, etc.
All of these processes are also
f
thermodynamically irreversible!
f 1

Applications
Many in biology/biophysics:
Computation of energy costs of
computing intercellular chemical
concentrations limited by energy
consumption of cells
Cellular motors switch directions based
on protein concentrations; switching
statistics emerge from modeling
informational-energetic cost of sensing
and switching.

Additional Sources to
explore:

** Physics Today Information: From Maxwells demon to Landauers eraser , Sept. 2015
http://www.nature.com/nphys/journal/v11/n2/full/nphys3230.html#information-and-the-second- law
http://journals.aps.org/prl/pdf/10.1103/PhysRevLett. 113.030601
The Physics of Forgetting (2001 Contemporary Physics)
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/pls/portallive/docs/1/55905. PDF
Principle of Maximum Fischer Information from Hardys Axioms applied to statistical systems
http://journals.aps.org/pre/pdf/10.1103/PhysRevE. 88.042144
M. G. Raizen, Science 324, 1403 (2009)
** Toyabe, et. al (2010): http://www.nature.com/nphys/journal/v6/n12/abs/nphys1821. html
** Berut, et al. (2012): http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v483/n7388/full/nature10872. html
** Sagawa and Ueda: Phys. Rev. Let. 104 090602 (2010): http://arxiv.org/pdf/0907.4914v3. pdf
Jarzynski 2014 phys. Today article on Maxwells demon experiments
http://www.chem.umd.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Lu_Mandal_Jarzynski_PhysToday_67_Augus
t_p60_2014.
pdf
Jarzynski (contains explanation of his work and other noneq. Dynamics
http://www.chem.umd.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Jarzynski_AnnuRevCondMattPhys_2_329_20
111.
pdf
Seifert 2014 Stochastic Thermodynamics, fluctuation theorems, and molecular machines http
://arxiv.org/abs/1205.4176 . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKnP0SJTZfU&ab_channel=
InternationalCentreforTheoreticalSciences

** Denotes source mentioned in talk